


That Our Feet May Leave

by tielan



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Character Study, Dissonance, Gen, Homesick, Journey
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-10-17
Updated: 2011-10-17
Packaged: 2017-10-24 17:14:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/265917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/pseuds/tielan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As Gwen travels the length and breadth of Albion, a part of her yearns for home.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That Our Feet May Leave

They start the tour heading north and west, riding away from Camelot to the kingdom of Gwynedd and its overgrown forests and wild hills.

Gwen turns in her saddle to look behind at the white walls of the castle, the banners sailing bright over the rooftops, over the walls of the city. It will be many months before she sees it again.

Their first stop is Cenred's court, before heading north, through Northumbria's moors to the highlands of Caledon. They'll celebrate midsummer in Alined's court, then head south to Mercia as the days grow colder, returning home in time for the first of winter's storms.

In larger towns, the crowds are expected. Royalty of any kind puts on a show, and the opportunity to gawk at the High King of Albion and his knights is always of interest to the people.

But it's not just the High King they come to see.

Gwen has come to expect the whispers and stares, to let them pass by without comment or retort - even when they're murmured behind her back, even when they sting.

" _Pendragon dismissed the fairest nobility of the realm for_ that _?_ "

" _She's just so...common. That skin - so brown! Why, there's no breeding in her at all It's a wonder she can even use a fork!_ "

" _If one desires the servantry, one should bed them, not wed them._ "

She knew what marriage to Arthur entailed when she said yes. And if she can't silence the sneerers where they stand, Gwen can still act the lady, with all the arrogance Morgana used to use for those she particularly disliked.

It's different outside the royal courts. When the royal procession passes through the countryside, the commoners gather to watch, leaving their fields and their chores, ignoring the shining steel of the knights, or the coloured silks of the ladies, and instead peering through the melee of horses and humans, seeking Gwen.

" _There! There's the queen - do you see her? In the scarlet gown. Isn't she lovely?_ "

" _They say she was once a servant at the castle. Just a girl like you, my dear._ "

" _She knows about how things are for us - they say she had words with Lord Childers over his taxing."_

Gwen tries not to disappoint them, although she's not sure she succeeds. She's just a woman like their mothers, like their sisters, like their daughters - one who saw the worth in a spoiled princeling, and one whose worth was seen by the king he became.

It's not easy, being everything to everyone: High Queen and blacksmith's daughter, nobility by marriage yet commoner by blood, aware of the price of protection while still conscious of the pain of production.

She thinks that most of the time she succeeds.

All that summer, she rides and smiles, socialises and greets, speaks of sorcery and harvests and politics in the kingdoms beyond Camelot.

Still, as the months draw on, a part of her longs for home.

\--

 Where we love is home,  
Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.  
~Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.~

 _Homesick in Heaven_


End file.
